It’s amazing to watch technology evolve. Think about it for a second. Ten years ago there was no Facebook, Twitter or YouTube. But now over 300 million people log-in to Facebook daily, Twitter supports over 50 million tweets per day, and 2 billion videos are watched every day on YouTube. Amazing stuff.

This is a very good sign for the non-profit world. Why? Well, because the non-profit sector is built on human connectedness, relationships, passion and the desire to create positive change in the world. All this innovation birthed a new type of website – one that’s not driven by a specific non-profit, but is focused on individual people and their online networks.

These new websites enable people to support the causes they’re passionate about and connect with like minded individuals – inspiring further interaction, engagement and support. Social media for social good is grassroots organizing, fundraising and impact in the digital world.

Here’s 9 “social media for social good” websites you should check out today.

1) Crowdrise – http://www.crowdrise.com

Crowdrise came on the scene with a big splash in 2010. According to the Crowdrise team “It’s revolutionary. Really. Crowdrise is an innovative, crowd-sourcing community of volunteers and fundraisers that are answering the call to service, raising money for charity, and having the most fun in the world while doing it.”

The big differentiator for Crowdrise is the built in community that encourages people to raise money and awareness while earning points. These points lead to winning amazing prizes and all you have to do is check the Points Leaderboard to see how you’re doing.

2) Causes – http://www.causes.com

Causes was the very first application built to work with Facebook a few short years ago and now they’ve seen 30 Million dollars raised for 27,000 non-profits. Their belief is that “The most successful movements have always been born out of and held together by the bonds of real world relationships, and online social networks present never before seen opportunities for organizing.” By tying in with Facebook from the start they’ve harnessed the relational power of the most prolific social network built to date.

One of the key’s to the success of Causes is their Create a Cause Wish for Charity concept. Essentially you can set up a page that allows you to fundraise by asking people to donate money in support of the cause you care about instead of buying you a gift. To date they’ve seen close to 10 Million dollars raised this way.

3) Jumo – http://www.jumo.com

Jumo is another social media for social good platform that entered the mix in 2010. Jumo’s received a very warm welcome and a lot of press being that the founder Chris Hughes was also the co-founder of Facebook and director of online organizing for Barack Obama’s 2008 Presidential campaign.

According to Jumo they are “a social network connecting individuals and organizations who want to change the world.” Their goal is to make it to find the issues and organization you care about, follow the latest news and updates, support their work with your time, money and skills.

The core benefit of Jumo is it’s ability to surface news and information about the causes and charities you support in a central location. An incredible added benefit is that you can see who else has joined Jumo from your Facebook social network and get an idea of what causes they’re interested in by checking out their Jumo profile.

4) Razoo – http://www.razoo.com

Razoo has seen over 40 Million dollars raised by passionate supporters of charitable work through their platform. According to them “Razoo is more than a website. It’s a movement of people who want to make generosity a part of everyday life.”

You can make a donation to your favorite non-profit, start a fundraising project or create a team where your friends and family can join you in supporting the cause your passionate about.

5) ammado – http://www.ammado.com

ammado is one that might not sound familiar, but don’t worry, their doing something really special. Making it simpler for people to connect with causes and non-profits on an international level. According to them “ammado connects you with global nonprofits and companies with the aim of making a difference in society. We provide the space where you can support the causes that are important to you and connect with like-minded individuals and organizations working towards positive change.”

ammado supports 76 currencies and 12 languages. This unique ability makes it simple to involve friends and family from all around the world. Amazing! You can even extend the giving experience to your personal website with their giving widget.

6) 1% Club – http://www.onepercentclub.com

The 1% Club allows non-profits who’s mission is, in some part, aimed at helping end world poverty. At the heart of the 1% club is a belief that “If everyone would offer 1% of their time, knowledge and income, we can structurally solve poverty” according to their website.

As projects are created people can support projects that interest them by making a donation, joining a project community and spreading the word.

7) GiveZooks – http://www.givezooks.com

givezooks is geared towards non-profit organizations – making it easy for them to bring their fundraising efforts online, promote them through social media channels and process donations, but givezooks also gives individuals the ability to the support non-porfit organizations they care about. They call it “social fundraising that makes it easy for individuals to get involved in philanthropy in a whole new way!”

8 ) HelpAttack – http://www.helpattack.com

HelpAttack is a handy platform with tons of utility. Essentially it allows you to support a cause through your activity on Tiwtter (and soon to come Facebook). By pledging an amount (say 25 cents) per Tweet for a defined amount of time (say 1 month) you can show your support for a cause you love. This takes the concept of pledging your financial support to a whole new “social” level.

If you ask the team at HelpAttack they’d tell you that “it’s a fun, easy way for you to turn social actions into social good.”

On top of creating a unique way to support charitable work HelpAttack built in a little social gaming to living things up and create fun competition amongst users. You can earn coins for your continued support, interaction and engagement.

9) RainMaker – http://www.rainmakerapp.com

Similar to HelpAttack, RainMaker‘s focus is on giving you a simple way to make a donation to a non-profit through Twitter. Once you’ve set up your RainMaker account and connected it to your PayPal account you’ll be able to easily spread the word about a cause you care about while also making a donation. All you have to do is Tweet something like “#redcross is doing wonderful things, so I’m giving $20 through @rainmakerapp”

Non-profit organizations using RainMaker are able to easily see who’s supported to them, track how much money has been raised via Twitter and send automated thank you Tweets to each donor.

Frank Barry, director of new growth ventures at Blackbaud and blogger at npENGAGE, helps nonprofits use the Internet for digital communication, social media, and fundraising so they can focus changing the world. He’s worked with a diverse group of organizations including LIVESTRONG, United Methodist Church, American Heart Association, Big Brothers Big Sisters, ChildFund Int’l, InTouch Ministries, Heifer Int’l, University of Notre Dame and University of Richmond. Along with writing for industry publications like Mashable and Social Media Today, Frank facilitates discussions, presents solo sessions and organizes panels for industry conferences such as NTC, SXSW, BBCon and numerous others. When he’s out and about he enjoys talking to interesting people about how they are changing the world – check out his interviews. Say Hi on Twitter – @franswaa or Google+

Comments (22)

I love the idea of Help Attack and will be adding the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network as a charity option. I also like Causes, which we are already participating with.

I am still unsure as to how Jumo will perform. It seems like a dashboard at the moment. It’s pulling all the social media content from outlets and re-posting. I am not seeing alot of interaction among people. We’ll see.

Frank, many thanks for your kind words on ammado. We are always delighted to get such feedback. A recent exciting feature that you may also be interested to try out is our ammado Facebook application. It can be used on both individual Facebook profiles and organisation fan pages and supports donations in the usual 76 currencies + many payment methods. It’s especially great for fundraisers and for nonprofits outside of the US & Canada who can’t use Causes. You can try it here: http://www.facebook.com/givenow

Thanks for all these great sites. I would love to see additional articles about social good shopping. like pungle.org and dealmeo.com. Besides just giving, it seems like a great way to raise funds would be to integrate it with your daily life a little more.

I found this extremely helpful! Thanks for putting these platforms in one location. I’m asking your approval to use this (link and graphics) as part of a presentation re: Social Media Tools for Social Justice I’m giving to a group of college students. Thanks again! -Reina

This is great. Let’s add social network for good http://jackthedonkey.com (be social, discover new music…make change for the charity of your choice freely and regularly) and his musical good side-kick http://iGiveapoop.com (promoting unsigned musicians and bands who drive change to the charities we give a poop about) to the list?

I’d like to suggest &you: its a free widget that lets both individuals and charities share information on the causes they care about across the web and different social platforms, you can get it here:http://andyou.jnj.com/

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